BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2002

Sharif Fordham

Anthony Glover

Marcus Hatten

Mike Jarvis

COACH MIKE JARVIS: Whoo, that, I guess, if you like defense and you like low-scoring games and you like a lot of clanging of the rim, tonight was certainly one of the classics. Thank God for the defense that the guys played, because without it we wouldn't be sitting up here tonight with number 20 and the chance to advance in the Big East tournament. So, we're very, very grateful. I mentioned to Marcus that on Sunday, he doesn't need to go to church just once, he should make sure he goes at least twice because he was certainly blessed today. But deservedly so for the shot. I heard him call, "Bank, glass." We will take it. On a night when Marcus had maybe his least productive night, other people - man to my right, Sharif Fordham - and Anthony Glover, a lot of other people stepped up. And we're alive. We will be here tomorrow night and we will play as hard as we can for as long as we can. Maybe it will be like the game we had a couple weeks ago against Notre Dame where maybe there are a lot of points scored. You never know with my team. Come tomorrow night. We'll all find out. I'm as anxious as anybody to see what will happen.

COACH MIKE JARVIS: Yeah, I can believe it. Because it happened. And it's happened before. And with this team, anything is possible, and just about everything has happened this year. So, yeah, I can believe it. I don't want to ever see it again, but I'll take it tonight. I think that we deserved to win, not that they didn't. But obviously, we had much, much more to gain. And, you know, we know we're going to play in post-season tournament play; we just don't know where. So, you know, we had probably a lot more to benefit from it, and maybe that's part of the reason why we got lucky tonight.

MARCUS HATTEN: Yeah, I knew exactly how much time was on the shot clock. When it left my hand, I know I left it a little bit harder than I usually shoot it. I called bank. You can ask Ty Shine if I called that (smiling).

MARCUS HATTEN: I mean, it was a normal shot I take and I felt comfortable shooting, so I let it go.

COACH MIKE JARVIS: You know why, because it was like the rest of the game tonight - didn't make a damn bit of sense but it worked tonight.

COACH MIKE JARVIS: The amazing thing about our free throws, and, you know, some of you guys have seen us practice, we -- I don't know, maybe we spend too much time on free throws. It's been a mystery to me all year why we don't make free throws in the games. But I guess tonight, when everybody went to the line and had to concentrate even more, that's what made the difference. So, you know, we made them. Hopefully we'll continue to make them. But you never know.

SHARIF FORDHAM: Well, you know, like you said, we didn't score for a long drought. I was able to get a steal and get Donald running up the court with the slam. But at the time, it didn't feel like it was slipping away. We just felt that, you know, we've been in that situation before where we haven't scored in over a long period of time. And I think that one basket helped us break the momentum of, you know, not scoring.

MARCUS HATTEN: I think we just had to stay with it, winning one. We had to stay focused, stay confident in ourselves that even though we was missing close baskets, we stay aggressive. No matter if we was missing close, we just kept at it.

SHARIF FORDHAM: All Coach asks of us is are we giving 100 percent. Even if we're missing, as long as we're in there battling for 40 minutes, I think that helped us tremendously.

SHARIF FORDHAM: I don't think so. I think we still have more to prove. We're not really not worried about it.

ANTHONY GLOVER: Well, I don't think that right now we should be worrying about, you know, the tournament. I think we should be worrying about the next opponent that we have ahead of us, which is Notre Dame. So, I think that, you know, when the time comes, if we lose a game in the Big East, then we worry about, you know, what we have next.

COACH MIKE JARVIS: That's why he didn't ask me.

COACH MIKE JARVIS: What's the question?

COACH MIKE JARVIS: Yes, we are. We're going to the quarterfinals tomorrow against Notre Dame between 9 and 9:30 on national TV. You bet your life we're going, yes.

COACH MIKE JARVIS: Big East tournament tomorrow night against Notre Dame, yes.

COACH MIKE JARVIS: Can you believe it?

COACH MIKE JARVIS: Tough.

COACH MIKE JARVIS: Let me tell you something, 20-0, it's like I once was in a Hertz bus with Roger Clemens. I sat about two seats from him. I could feel 20s all over the place. When he got out of the Hertz, he gave the guy a $20 bill. It feels good to see a 20. And basketball, you know, in high school we didn't play as many guys. If you got 20, it was like, it was a huge accomplishment. I thought when I went to college, you know, maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal. But I can remember every 20-win season. There aren't many times and many people that can say that. So 20 is huge. I mean, it's a magical number in basketball. And I don't know, you know, at some point in time when it's over, we will then, I think, realize what a really good year we've had. But the reality is, is that as long as I'm in New York, you know, you always have to -- we've had a great year so far. And, like I said, we'll be back tomorrow night. But 20 is very, very nice, very important. And I think these guys should be, I mean, just really be happy with that at this point in time.

COACH MIKE JARVIS: Well, you know, it's really funny. I mean, that game was so different, obviously, than most of the games we played. I mean, we won that game, I think we scored in the 80s. That's a lot of points for us. You sometimes have to go to three of our practices to see that many points scored, and we practice sometimes for three hours. 80 is a lot of points. That's the thing that in a way scares me. I just don't know how many nights we got 80s in us. But then again, maybe we can find a way to stop Notre Dame. They're a great offensive team. So we'll see what happens. We got to win. We're 1-0 against them so far this month - or in the last couple weeks. So we'll see what happens.